MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's Alberto Fernández to attend Los Angeles Summit

Bolsonaro will also be attending despite his discrepancies with Biden

Argentine President Alberto Fernández finally confirmed he will be attending the ninth Summit of the Americas convened for next week in Los Angeles following a 25-minute telephone conversation with his US colleague Joseph Biden, during which they also agreed on a bilateral meeting for July 25.

Fernandez's decision ends the controversy stemming from the White House's decision to exclude Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua from the guest list, for the undemocratic tint of the local regimes and their permanent violations of human rights.

The Argentine leader had been reluctant to accept Biden's invitation, citing his role as pro-tempore president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), due to which he claimed he had a mandate to stand up for all member countries.

Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and other regional heads of state such as Luis Arce Catacora have announced they will not attend the summit -which they dubbed a gathering of buddies of Biden's- in solidarity with those excluded.

With Fernández's announcement, all four Mercosur Presidents will be attending the event, after Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro also said he would make the trip after having said he would not due to his discrepancies with Biden. “I met him at the G20 [2021 Summit in Rome], but he passed in front of me as if I did not exist. It was his treatment of everyone. I don't know if it's the age,” Bolsonaro had said about the 79-year-old hosting head of state.

Ties between Brazil and the US have been frozen after Bolsonaro expressed his view that Biden had beaten then-incumbent President Donald Trump through fraudulent methods in the elections. He also fears the “same” can happen to him against Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva this year. The Brazilian leader has been accused of spreading fake news with these allegations.

In any case, after the Rome crossing, Bolsonaro said he believed his presence at the Summit would be useless. Apparently, he changed his mind.

Argentine Presidential Spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti also denied Thursday previous press reports saying Fernández intended to hold a CELAC Summit in California which would include Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Before making up his mind, Fernández also spoke with AMLO on the telephone, Cerruti explained.

At the Los Angeles Summit, “the President will bring the position of CELAC and Latin America on the world situation, how it affects the war in Ukraine and how Latin America must be united and without exclusions,” she added. She also stressed that “there was never any possibility” of holding a meeting parallel to the Summit of the Americas with the CELAC member countries.